Morning Fog
by matoran
Summary: Prince Zuko saves the life of a young icebender named Onara. Onara finds out about Zuko's search for the Avatar and tries to help him.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Water, earth, fire, and air. The four nations and the bending that came with them. The words that everyone knew. But for well-known fact, there are also well-kept secrets. The best of all, perhaps, is us. The lesser-known benders of the planet, masters of stone and ice. Ice bending is nowhere near the same as waterbending, and stonebending just begins where an earthbender's powers end. The stonebenders are the strongest of the six, but with the war came the separation between the vital powers provided by the Earth and Fire Nations, and the stonebender population diminished.

We icebenders have the most mysterious power. Our energy seems to come from nowhere. We have the ability to create ice, not just shape it like waterbenders do. Our parents must be each a waterbender and an airbender, or and icebender and a waterbender or airbender. Like the stonebenders, the war brought partial destruction to our people. The newest generation is believed to be the last. Still, my parents tell me to have hope. But what is hope? What are dreams? What does it mean to long? Does it make things different? Do things change? And what does anyone do when hope is lost, when dreams turn into nightmares?

It is hard to have hope under such bleak circumstances, but who knows? If we just keep trying maybe somehow everything will be all right.


	2. Chapter 1

1

Onara ran at full speed to escape the wild komodo dragon that was chasing her. She stopped, spun around, and crafted an ice wall between them. The rhino crashed through it and Onara ran again, trying to dodge the sharp ice shards flying at her. She ran through the forest, begging no one in particular that the beast would stop chasing her. _What did I even do?_ She wondered as she made a sharp turn and, seeing a large tree that seemed easy to climb, ran for it and started up it. The komodo rhino doubled back and saw her. It charged at her. Halfway to the first thick branch, Onara slipped on some moss and landed hard on the ground. She backed against the tree and shut her eyes, waiting for the pain to come. It never did. From behind her closed eyelids, she saw a glow and felt heat on her face to match the light. She heard the best howl and winced. Then everything was quiet.

Onara relaxed and slowly opened her eyes. A hand reached out in front of her, but she couldn't focus enough to see who it was offering it because her eyes had been shut so tight. She blinked a few times and took the hand. When she was on her feet, she looked at the person who had saved her. It was a teenage boy, not more than a year older than her. He was tall and thin and had eyes that seemed to flicker between brown and gold like a strange fire. His dark brown hair was pulled back and he had a scar on most of the left side of his face. She recognized his clothing as Fire Nation armor. Onara did not know whether to be happy or afraid.

The firebender looked at her, the slightest trace of a smile on his face. Sensing her fear, he took a couple of steps backward and spoke. "Don't be afraid." He spoke softly so as not to scare her more. When she still seemed frightened, he tried again. "I'm not going to hurt you. Are you all right?" Onara nodded, now a little more relaxed.

"Thank you for saving me." She looked around for the komodo rhino. Its charred body lay in a heap behind the boy. "is it... dead?" the boy smirked.

"Yeah. There wasn't really a way to avoid that." He turned and started to walk away. Onara ran to catch up with him.

"What are you doing here?"She looked at his armor. "You're not... is my town being attacked?" The boy's face became very serious.

"I'm looking for someone. Your town is safe as long as your people cooperate." Onara considered asking him who, but then thought that if he wanted her help, he would have asked her. She still tried to keep the conversation going.

"How did you get here? Did you walk or-"

"I came on a ship." From the tone of his voice, Onara got the idea that she was just being an annoyance and slackened her pace. She watched him carefully. He kept walking, but slowed down when he noticed she wasn't there. He turned around and waited for her, smiling to himself all the while.

"What?" Onara asked when she was next to him. He didn't say anything, but his smile faded. Soon they were able to see the town through the thinning trees and bushed.

"I am going to ask you something, and I expect you to do it," the boy said, facing her. "Walk further along before reentering the town. I want to meet up with my troops _alone_." Onara nodded and started away from him. She stopped and looked back, hoping he hadn't left yet. He hadn't.

"Well, thank you again for saving me." He didn't say anything. "Oh. And even though it probably doesn't make any difference, my name's Onara." She watched him again, waiting for any sign of acknowledgment, but none came. She turned back around and walked off through the trees towards her house.

Prince Zuko walked through the small Earth Kingdom town. His uncle had wanted to look for yet _another_ missing piece for his Pai-Sho game. Zuko groaned as he thought of it. He had figured that as long as they were there, he would ask the villagers if they had seen the Avatar. No one had, but Zuko suspected that most of them were lying. Not that it mattered. He _would_ find the Avatar, no matter what. He began keeping his eyes open for Iroh. They needed to leave and continue north. If his uncle hadn't found what he needed, then that was too bad.

Zuko wandered down the main street. He looked around him, but even as the crowd lessened, he still saw no sign of his uncle and began to lose his temper. He turned onto a side street with more vendors and scowled when he still didn't see Iroh. He continued walking, and something caught his eye. A few yards in front of him stood a girl with long black hair that she had tied back with a ribbon, but most of it had fallen out. The ribbon was a dark shade of green to match her clothes. His eyes widened in recognition. It was the girl from before. The quiet, nervous girl he had met in the forest. Somehow she had managed to provoke a komodo rhino into chasing her. Something had made him go after her, but he didn't know what. He didn't really care what happened to her.

Zuko smirked as he watched her. She was at the front door of a small, two-story house, trying to open it. The girl fumbled with the handle and banged on the door, but it didn't open. She was muttering something, but he couldn't hear it, and nor did he care. He walked past her and down the street, again scowling and grumbling about his uncle.

Onara went up to the front steps of her house and turned the doorknob. It turned halfway and stopped. "Oh, come _on_," she said under her breath. She knocked on the door. No one answered. She groaned. "This is _really_ not my day." She looked at her open bedroom window, six feet above her. Leaning over the railing of the tiny porch, she could just reach a stone that stuck out farther than the rest. She grabbed it tight and jumped off the porch.

Onara looked up and searched for the next one. Once she found it, she grabbed hold of it and pulled herself up. There was a procession of stones like these that led to her window. She and her best friend, Mindea, had discovered them while trying to sneak off one night . Neither one of them could remember why they wanted to leave that night, but the stone "ladder" proved to be a valuable thing to have. Soon she reached the window and climbed in. She leaned her head out and looked at the ground out of old habit. She saw nothing, but what had she expected to see?

Onara left her room and looked around her small house for a sign of human activity. No one was home. "Great, just great. Oh, well. I really wasn't in the mood for an interrogation, anyway." She mimicked her mother's voice. "Where were you? I expected you back 10 minutes- are those _scratches_? Are you _bleeding_? What on earth _happened_ to you?" She chuckled and went back upstairs to the bathroom. She took a bath and put on clean clothes, then re-entered her room and flopped on her bed to think.

_Who could a Fire Nation soldier _possibly _hope to find out here? There's o no one from there around here. Ugh, I must have sounded like an idiot thanking him over and over. 'Oh, yeah. I can't even buy some fruit without getting in trouble. Thanks for saving my pathetic butt!'_

"Augh!" Onara rolled over and flopped again with frustration. "Finally someone my own age to talk to to, and I mess it up." Remembering her friend, she spoke to herself again. "Mindea doesn't count because she's always off with her parents."

"Not at the moment." Onara sat up and looked at the window. Mindea had just climbed through the window and now stood at the foot of the bed. She climbed up and sat across from Onara. "Okay, so I'm not home much lately. But tell me," her eyes sparkled mischievously, "_who_ are you talking about and how did you mess it up?"

"Ugh, it's a long story..."

"I've got nowhere to be." Onara sighed and got comfortable. She told Mindea about being chased.

"...Then I opened my eyes. Someone's holding out their hand, so I take it. He helps me up and-"

"He? _He_! _Now_ I know why you're so upset." Mindea grinned.

"What? No! We hardly spoke the whole way back and-"

"So?"

"AND he's from the Fire Nation." Mindea looked disappointed.

"Aww... no! Bummer. You know how they are. You can't trust them." Onara groaned. "What?"

"I didn't say I did. The guy just toasted the rhino and went off. I tried to make conversation since we were both going the same way, but he only gave me short answers. And when we got back, he made me go a different way."

"Well, what _did_ he tell you?"

"Not much. He got here by ship, he was looking for someone, and he wasn't taking our town." Neither of them spoke. Onara couldn't tell Mindea, but she wanted to find the firebender. She wanted to help him find whoever he was looking for. He had saved her life; it was the least she could do. However, Mindea wouldn't like it, so Onara would have to keep it to herself. Mindea stood up.

"Well, it was absolutely _lovely_ catching up with you, but my parents want me to watch my little sister while they go shopping. Do you mind if I use the front door?" Onara chuckled.

"No, go ahead. You didn't see my parents earlier, did you?"

"No. They'll show up. Bye."

"Goodbye, Mindea." Onara waited until she heard the door close, then ran downstairs and locked it. When she thought about it, there really wasn't a good reason to do it, but left it locked. She decided to look around for some form of a note from her parents. When she had searched the whole house and found nothing, her pulse began to quicken. _They'll be fine. Don't panic, don't panic don't_- "Ahh!" She jumped back.

Onara looked at the thing on the upstairs hallway floor. The ball that her grandfather had played with when he was little rolled to the wall, bumped it, and stopped. "Oh." She picked it up and put it back on the shelf in memory of him. During the search, the sun had set. _I must have bumped it in the dark_. She walked blindly to her room and got ready for bed; she was abnormally tired. She figured it was from the running. She closed her window and went to bed. Tomorrow she would find the firebender and offer to help him.


End file.
